Cool idea for a thread.
I grew up relatively poor. I lived in a single wide on my grandparents property until I was 4ish. My parents then bought the house I spent the rest of my childhood in (mom still owns it) for $10k. It needed a ton of work, it belonged to an old spinster hoarder. My father bounced shortly after that and didn't really provide much in the way of child support.
All that said, I never went without the necessities. But a lot of my experience with "luxuries" came when visiting friends and family.
I did have some relatively well off cousins and I would get their first dibs on their hand-me-downs. Lots of Hilfiger and Polo and Ocean Pacific (baller) stuff. I always loved going to their house, they had an NES and it seemed like every game made for it at the time.
My first car was originally my great-grandmother's Plymouth Reliant that my grandfather gave me. I remember being jealous when a kid in my class pulled into the parking lot with a brand new Camaro on year.
I'm glad I had the upbringing I did, though. It could've been easier or more fun with more money, but I'm very grateful for the lessons my mother taught me. She's 58 and could retire tomorrow if she wanted to. My wife and I are (knock on wood) on track to, at the very least, be able to reduce our income needs to maintain our lifestyle in the next 5-10 years.
